Published 12:00 am, Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Staffers will be laid off. Senators will settle into new office suites. Committees under new direction will hold their first hearings. And the quartet of senators making up the new Independent Democratic Conference -- well, we'll see what next week brings.

"Those things have not been discussed yet," Deputy Majority Leader Tom Libous, R-Binghamton, said of the breakaway klatch. "We're still trying to figure out how this works with a Republican majority conference, a Democrat minority conference and an Independent quote-unquote Democrat conference. I'm not ruling out anything ... but if any of you have any ideas on how we move forward and function with this new system, let us know."

For now, Sens. Jeff Klein, Diane Savino, David Carlucci and David Valesky have not been named to any standing legislative committees, which denies them the cash stipends rewarded to senators who serve as chairs or ranking members. Both Republicans and Democrats listed their appointees during a brief session Tuesday before leaving the Capitol without acting on any bills.

Klein, D-Bronx, was replaced Monday as deputy Democratic leader by Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Bethlehem. Republicans have been more receptive of the breakaway foursome than their fellow Democrats, but they were not immediately awarded any committee chairmanships or an allocation to hire legislative staff in their offices. Libous said it's "all being looked at and discussed."

Unveiling a report about government waste on Monday, Klein seemed unfazed with his orphan status.

"We announced the formation of the Independent Democratic Conference last week, and we were very clear: It's about governing," he said. "There has been no discussion about staff allocation. The only thing, at this point, was I was informed by the minority leader of the Senate that we will be getting a $350,000 allocation, as every member is."

One Democratic senator claimed there would be a $3 million award for the defectors, but Libous denied it. After winning a 32-seat majority in the fall elections, Republicans control the allocation of resources and offices in the house.

Libous said there is a $10 million to $12 million deficit run up by Democrats during their two-year stint in the majority. By Jan. 19, he said, the Democratic payroll must be reduced by 32 percent to compensate. After that, "we have to see if they hit that number and then we have to ask them to take an additional percentage," Libous said.

Austin Shafran, a spokesman for the Democratic Conference, said "we've already started to make cuts and have spoken with staffers about significantly reducing our payroll in the minority." Just how many people are laid off, he said, "greatly depends on whether or not the Republicans (will be) as equitable with the resources as we were when we were in the majority."

As for Klein and his followers, "We only appoint committee assignments based on members of our conference. They have made it clear they are no longer members of our conference." The same is true for staff allocations.

A joint committee is working through the details of assigning cars, offices and money. Libous represents the Republicans, and Breslin was named to replace Klein as the Democratic representative.

Sen. Martin Malave Dilan, D-Brooklyn, once again attacked Klein for leaving the Democratic conference, noting "he was put in a position of trust to work that transition, and because of that he had a moral and ethical responsibility to report back to our leader."

Klein has blasted that leader, Sen. John Sampson, as a reason for leading his caucus in secession.

By order of seniority, senators began to draw their office assignments on Tuesday. Klein moved into Libous' old offices, taken by some as a sign of more Republican-provided perks to come.